To the editor:

Libertarian candidate Daryl Gould pledges to vote ‘no’ on state question 1 which asks voters to approve a $250 million bond for school repairs and construction. He believes that this bond would unfairly burden the taxpayers of Barrington who have been good stewards of the town’s schools and resources. 

Mr. Gould fails to realize that the communities in our state, and across the country, that have been able to maintain their schools, and finance new ones, are located in relatively well-to-do, usually majority white communities, and that the wealth that is available to these communities is largely a result of structural racism.

Redlining, whereby People of Color were precluded from buying homes in certain neighborhoods, is one of the best known practices that created white communities with the wealth to support good schools. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the 1862 Homestead Act, the 1933 Social Security Act, the 1944 Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, and the more recent predatory lending practices of certain banks are a few examples of how the policies of the government and private companies have bestowed monetary advantages on white people that have been passed down to subsequent generations. 

Mr. Gould seems to be happy that he and his neighbors here in the East Bay have “made it,” and he seems to think that they have done it all on their own; they haven’t. And all of us will benefit when we insure that children in all communities have adequate and equitable resources and equal opportunities.

Trinki Brueckner

Barrington